Page 39 of Second Chances (Passion and Perseverance #2)

There was a knock on the door. Quickly wiping her eyes dry, she took a deep breath, preparing to go back out to the table and finish what she had started.

Walking over to the door, she had no sooner opened it than Darcy pushed inside, locking it behind him.

She gaped at him as he stalked towards her, backing her up against the wall.

His hand came up to grasp her chin, capturing her gaze with his.

Boy, she was in for it now. After what she had said to him, what she had implied, her breath caught, waiting for the hammer to fall.

“Beth Bennet, I love you. I love you beyond all imaginable reason. I would give my life for you, for yours, in a heartbeat because you are the only reason that my heart beats. I will do whatever it takes to protect you from anyone, including her, don’t ever doubt that .

If anything happened to you , I don’t… I don’t even know.

” His heart-wrenching words paused here, his voice catching on the too-overwhelming thought of being without her.

“I’m sorry if what I said or didn’t say gave you the wrong impression but I swear to you, everything I’m doing, I’m doing to protect you even if I can’t fully explain it to you right now; I’m begging you to trust me. ”

Her tears had begun to fall at his painfully sweet words. His confession was raw with emotion, the type of emotion that he always preferred to show her rather than to say but damn, he really did have a way with words when he tried.

This time, when he looked her in the eyes, she saw no anger, only remorse and his need for her forgiveness and love.

“I do trust you,” she whispered. “I just hate feeling like we are helpless pawns in whatever game she is playing.”

“I will put an end to this, I promise,” he said sincerely, wiping away the tears staining her cheeks, “Legally, or otherwise, I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let her come between us. She means nothing to me, Beth, you have to believe me.”

His tortured entreaty was the healing salve on her aching heart. She heard it in his voice, she saw it in his face, just how much he was desperate for her to believe him. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him so vulnerable to his emotions before.

“I believe you; I love you,” she whispered, still in awe of how vulnerable he was and how unbelievably much her heart and love swelled for him because of it.

“I love you so much, don’t ever doubt how important you are to me. Ever.” His words came out harshly in a show of their significance, his eyes glistening with emotion and a glimmer of unshed tears

“ Show me. ” The words came, unbidden, straight from her heart, as her love and longing reflected in her gaze.

His eyes widened momentarily, surprised at her request, before he gently tilted her chin up and, acquiescing to her demand, claimed her mouth with his.

Darcy kissed her softly, reverently, mirroring the tenderness of his words.

She moaned into his mouth, her arms coming up around his neck.

He kissed her, pulling the soft fullness of her lower lip into his mouth, gently sucking on the tender skin; his tongue begged entrance into her mouth, gently caressing hers when she opened for him on a sigh .

There wasn’t the immediate, overwhelming burn of desire; this time, he gently stoked the fire of her passion, making love to her mouth, pouring all that he had promised her into that kiss.

She relished it, his tenderness, in those first few moments but, as much as she loved and appreciated his restraint, she didn’t need him to take it slow, she just needed him .

She could feel the thick, hardness of his erection straining against her stomach. Running her hand down swiftly over the firm planes of his chest and stomach, she grasped his bulging member through his pants. His hips jerked in her hand as his head pulled back, sucking in a sharp breath of air.

“ Beth,” he groaned, his eyes closing as the pleasure of her touch rocketed through him. “I can’t hold on when you do that…please...” His gaze burned with barely checked passion.

After such a sequence of tumultuous events, after holding in her emotions all day, she needed to lose herself in him, in her love for him. She didn’t care that they were locked in the women’s bathroom; she needed his exquisitely uncontrolled desire, to be one with him.

“Darcy, I don’t need you to hold on, I need you.

” She emphasized her point by rubbing his erection suggestively, eliciting another strained groan from him.

“I need to know that I am yours,” she continued as she leaned in to kiss his jaw line over to his ear.

“I need you to fuck me,” she finished, biting on his earlobe.

Darcy growled in response, claiming her mouth once again, this time desire blazing, searing brightly between them as he pressed her back against the bathroom wall.

Beth responded with equal fervor, her tongue dueling with his as her hand worked vigorously to free his arousal from the constraints of his pants .

His hand dropped down to squeeze her ass before hiking her one leg up around his hip, her skirt bunching up to accommodate her new position.

His movement paused, a shudder racing through his body as Beth finally managed to loosen his pants and work her hand inside to grasp his bare erection, burning hot and hard against her palm.

His weakness was momentary as his finger barely moved aside her underwear before delving deep inside her hot, slick folds.

She moaned against his mouth, her hips undulating against his hand.

“Shh,” he whispered brokenly, “they can hear us.”

Beth bit her lip trying to muffle her reaction, the act of which only heightened her desire. She felt his thumb against her clit as two fingers worked the inside of her passage, massaging that tender spot until she couldn’t even tell if she was making noise or not.

She must have been because Darcy’s mouth captured hers again, swallowing her moans. Beth tried to focus on pleasuring him, toying with the head of his erection, feeling it become impossibly hard underneath her touch as a small bead of moisture released from its tip.

He was on the verge of climax. Darcy growled into her mouth and his fingers began to work expertly on her core, bringing her swiftly over the edge of her orgasm, swallowing her cries with his mouth as her passage clenched around his fingers.

He gave her no respite, his fingers pulled out of her but continued to rub her clit as she gasped for air.

Before she could even process the sudden loss inside of her, he brushed her hand aside, lifted her so that her legs were locked around his waist, and pushed the length of his erection inside of her, groaning the entire way as her contracting passage massaged the sensitive skin of his cock.

She vaguely heard his harsh panting as he fully seated himself inside her vagina. He didn’t move though, instead, his fingers toyed relentlessly with her swollen bundle of nerves; he groaned as he let the strengthening contractions of her inner muscles pleasure his aching erection .

Beth lost herself in the pleasure; all she could focus on - all she could feel was his finger teasing her clit closer to another orgasm as her passage clenched longing for the release that was swiftly consuming her.

“ Please,” she begged Darcy. She was so close.

“That’s it, baby .”

She gasped, her eyes opening wide as his words sent her body over the edge of exquisite pleasure.

Her hips jerked, even though they were pinned between him and the wall, her scream was quickly stifled by his mouth and soon mingled with his hoarse groan as her orgasming passage pulled him over the edge with her; the squeezing pressure of her muscles wrung his climax from him as she felt the warmth of his semen spread inside of her.

Their lips broke apart, each gasping for air. Darcy’s head fell against her collarbone as Beth leaned her head back against the wall.

“We should go,” Darcy said hoarsely after a few minutes, a devious smile on his face as he quickly dropped a kiss on her lips.

Gently setting her legs back down, Beth groaned as her muscles protested after being in an awkward position for so long.

Grabbing a paper towel, she quickly washed herself and wiped up the evidence of their tryst that had landed on the floor.

Looking in the mirror, she adjusted her clothes until she felt that she looked presentable enough.

Turning around, her face flushed as Darcy stared at her, renewed desire flickering in his eyes.

She grabbed his hand and leaned up to plant a kiss on his chin. “Let’s go home,” she whispered suggestively.

Unlocking the door, she let Darcy lead her quickly from the restroom hallway that was blessedly empty, to the elevator, just as eager as he to get back home to their bed.